R&D in US Educational Institutions: Allocation of NSF Grants 2002 - 2015

Presented by Sahar Alhassan, Kaitlyn Lynes,
Deepa Mehta, & Ilya Perepelitsa
December 14, 2015

1. Project Background

  • National Science Foundation (NSF) is a key engine that funds US-based R&D
  • Our group focused on NSF grant dollars allocated to US institutions from 2002 to 2015
  • We focused on the relationsships between grant type (new, continuing, revised) over time
  • We also examined the types of approved grant projects, as well as institutions and disciplines that received federal funding
  • We also began to explore geographic concentration of grant funding

2. Research Method

  • Started with the NSF Grant Database
  • Collated yearly data into a single dataset for 2002 - 2015
  • Developed a series of Plots
load("NSF.RData") 
library(ggplot2) 
newdata <- schoolsall[which(schoolsall$starting_date < '2015-01-01' & schoolsall$starting_date > '2014-01-01'), ] 
newdata1 <- schoolsall[which(schoolsall$starting_date < '2015-01-01' & schoolsall$starting_date > '2013-01-01'), ] 
newdata2 <- schoolsall[which(schoolsall$starting_date < '2015-01-01' & schoolsall$starting_date > '2012-01-01'), ] 
newdata3 <- schoolsall[which(schoolsall$starting_date < '2015-01-01' & schoolsall$starting_date > '2008-01-01'), ] 
newdata4 <- schoolsall[which(schoolsall$starting_date < '2015-01-01' & schoolsall$starting_date > '1999-01-01'), ] 
newdata5 <- schoolsall[which(schoolsall$starting_date < '2015-01-01' & schoolsall$starting_date > '1999-01-01'), ]

3. NSF Monthly Grant Allocation 2014-2015

  • FINDING
  • FINDING

4. NSF Grant Dollar Allocation by Month over a Two-Year Period: 2013-2015

  • FINDING
  • FINDING

5. NSF Grant Dollar Allocation by Month over a Thirteen-Year Period: 2002-2015

  • FINDING
  • FINDING

6. Two Hypotheses

  1. More research grants were allocated at year-end

7. Types of NSF Grants 2002-2015

8. NSF Grant Dollar Allocation by Month as a Function of Research Duration

  • Are projects with a longer duration allocated larger grants?

9. NSF Grant Dollars by Research Duration & By Type

10. Gaps in Research Funding: 2004

  • What accounts for the gap in data in 2004?
  • Is this a gap in data or was research funding halted due to a government shutdown in 2004?

11. Density of Grant Types

12. Density of Grants - By Subject

13. Density of Grants - By Recipient Type

14. Density of Grants by Action Type and Recipient Type

15. Density of Grants by Action Type and by States

16. Density of Grants by Action Type and by Subject

17. OTHER???

CODE??

18. Discussion

  • Finding
  • Finding

19. Preliminary Conclusions and Next Steps

  • Finding
  • Finding

20. Thank You!